ABSTRACT
In order to sustain eff ective public administration, bureaucrats must be empowered enough to utilize their expert knowledge, experience, and good judgment in solving the innumerable complex and interrelated problems generated by industrialized or postindustrial societies. However, when bureaucrats become politically dominant, as they are by defi nition in a bureaucratic polity, they typically run wild: they become corrupt, lazy, and oppressive because no political institution is strong enough to discipline and guide them, to set policies and norms, and exercise eff ective control over public offi cials. A critical issue for every modern state, therefore, is how to empower offi cials enough to assure good public administration without permitting them to become dominant.
